Joel Campbell set up four goals in an inspirational performance as Olympiacos beat OFI 5-1 today in the Greek Superleague. Campbell assisted two goals for Kostas Mitroglu, as well as teeing up Giannis Maniatis and Sambou Yatabare. Campbell was also booked during an eventful outing.

Valerio Pennicino/Getty Images Europe

Arsenal’s two German-based loanees went head to head today in the Bundesliga, but both Johan Djourou and Francis Coquelin suffered some degree of misfortune. Djourou was substituted after only 22 minutes through injury as his Hamburg side dispatched of Freiburg with a 3-0 victory, whilst Coquelin, who was again deployed on the left wing, was booked with 15 minutes remaining.

Chuks Aneke emerged as a 57th minute substitute and rattled the crossbar with a fierce effort during Crewe Alexandra’s 3-1 defeat to Sheffield United.

Josh Vickers‘ FA Cup run came to an end as Canvey Island lost 1-0 to Biggleswade Town in the 4th Qualifying Round of the competition, but the young goalkeeper made several outstanding saves.

Austin Lipman wasn’t involved as Boreham Wood took on Heybridge Swifts in the FA Cup, but could make his debut for his new loan club at home to Maidenhead United tomorrow evening.

Wellington emerged as a second-half substitute and was booked during Murcia’s 2-2 draw with Cordoba.

i don’t think it was a poor decision, no one could have foreseen injuries to Walcott chamberlain, podolski, sanogo and cazorla at the same time and its only because of those injuries that bendtner, gnabry and ryo have had a sniff. once those 5 are back in contention, I would fully expect gnabry and ryo to go out on loan and possibly one of sanogo or bendtner.

Unless Arsenal buy another striker (which is always possible) Sanogo and Bendtner will not go on loan. Relying on Giroud and Akpom for the rest of the season would be stupid. Nor Podolsky nor Walcott can play the lone striker in our formation.

The decision to loan Campbell was taken when AFC still believed that they were going to land Suarez. In retrospect that was not very smart.
Gnabry was always destined to be part of the first team. Rather than dead rubber champion’s league game, League Cup and FA Cup games, he played in three premiership game. Ryo and Gnabry were both marked as third line support.

With regard to our injuries, having three or four forward players injured at the same time is our normal rate. When was the last time, we had a full complement of players to choose from?

well soon we will have 6 strikers competing for 1 slot, giroud, bendtner, sanogo, park, akpom and afobe. ok the latter two are probably competing for the under 21s, but of the other 4, I expect 2 to go out on loan, most likely park and sanogo. Walcott and podolski can both cover the striker, perhaps even as a pairing or using a false no.9 in a 4-6-0

Park is still at Arsenal only because nobody is willing to match his Arsenal wages.
Once free of injuries, Benik Afobe will be loaned and sold to a lower league. In my opinion, it is a shame because with proper coaching dedicated to striker he could become very good. Maybe he will fulfill his potential after spending a couple of years in the lower league.
Once the League Cup run is over Akpom will be sent to a League 1 or Championship club.
He needs to gain experience, to play in an environment with a lot of pressure.
Arsene Wenger has already said that Sanogo will not leave this season as he needs to adapt to a new club, a new style of play.
Bentdner will only be allowed to leave if AFC can buy a ready made striker who can also play in the champion’s league. I don’t see a lot of them available: Suarez is a not coming, even for big bucks. Falcao is still dreaming of joining Real Madrid the next summer. Most of other strikers would think of the risk to their place for the next World Cup. So we would either get a player who is not currently playing or a guy moving for the money.
In either case, I am not sure that in the short term the change would not leave us in a worse situation than now. Bentdner may not be everybody cup of tea, but he is decent and willing to play second fiddle to Giroud.

I agree. Afobe is a good player but too many injuries all the time. We need players who are ready to fight for the title and even win the smaller games for us. He is not the one at the moment. I have a hard time to see Akpom being the amazing talent too unless he is doing fine on loan in league 2,1 or championship.